Taylor Acorn - Live review
Have you ever been to a small gig at a grassroots venue and watched an absolute masterpiece of a show? The band come on with enough energy to power an entire street and talent that you’d film a documentary about?
Well that’s what happened at Gorilla bar in Manchester on a random Sunday in April.
Of course this wasn’t by coincidence. Singer songwriter, Taylor Acorn, has been an underrated powerhouse in her genre for years now and has been slowly climbing the pop punk charts whilst helping pave the way for the return of EMO. 🖤
Bringing along with her wilt - who absolutely rocked the house down with their passionate talent and energy. wilt are a Los Angeles rock band whose name was inspired by the song 'Celebrity Skin’ by Hole.
At 7pm the doors opened to an excited crowd filled with fans of all ages and backgrounds. I had some brilliant conversations with amazing people. From the younger crowd in their early twenties with amazing rainbow Mohawks to older ladies who’ve been following Taylor for a long time.
The energy was magnetic in the room as everyone waited patiently to see what they knew would be a great show.
At 8pm, wilt came on stage with enough fire to fuel the aforementioned street in my previous metaphor. In this case, said street stands years before electricity was invented. Though I suppose electricity wasn’t invented and more discovered.
Going back to my original point, I watched from the crowd as the band entered the stage and looked around to see fans that not only knew them but LOVED them. If I closed my eyes and just listened I could’ve imagined I was at a one direction concert for how loud the screams were.
The lead singer, Chelsea Rifkin, clearly ran off this kind of energy as she bounced onto the stage. The first thing I noticed was her fantastic hair. I know it’s controversial to bring up a woman’s looks before her talent but I promise I was equally, if not more, enamoured by her phenomenal performance. I just HAVE to mention the hair .
I watched in awe as they mesmerised everyone including me. I have honestly never seen a band so in sync from the second they set foot on stage. The way they knew where to go to connect with each other and the audience - letting every person shine and equally shining themselves. It almost seemed choreographed - though I know it wasn’t as it was too free and heartfelt. But maybe that’s because I’m clumsy and know that if I was on the stage I’d fall over wires, the band and probably my own guitar.
WILT fans were having the time of their lives as they played banger after banger, throwing a few covers in there such as ‘Zombie’ by the cranberry’s and ‘All the things she said’ by t.A.T.u.
There was a 15 minute gap between wilt’s set at Taylor Acorns. One thing I will note which is HONESTLY my only criticism of this otherwise perfect line up was the playlist in the middle. It WAS great, they were playing fantastic nu metal and heavier stuff. But they definitely missed a chance where they should’ve played more emo music. It’s clearly what the crowd wanted as they’d be singing their hearts out when the odd emo song would come on. Right before Taylor came on, ‘In Too Deep’ by Sum41 played and there wasn’t a single person that wasn’t jumping and singing.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with leaning into the nostalgia of 2000’s/2010’s emo music when your music is clearly heavily inspired by pop-punk. Taylor could use the branding to truly excel her career, bringing emo back. Because trust me (I’m not okay) it’s absolutely not a phase mum.
Let’s 👏 talk 👏 about 👏 Taylor 👏 and 👏 her 👏 band.
Wow.
Taylor Acorn is a singer/songwriter from Northern Pennsylvania who signed a publishing deal and moved to Nashville. She gave up a chance at a track and field scholarship to focus on music - working extremely hard to give herself the chance to live out her music dreams dreams. She even recently supported famous pop-punk band, All Time Low on tour. I saw a recent description of her music as ‘Genre-fluid.’ This is perfectly how I’d describe her - Rock chick, pop girly and everything in between.
Then there’s her band.
First of all, I am surprised I didn’t wake up in oz because her guitarist, Ricky Jab was spinning fast enough to create a whirlwind. The talent you need to be able to think about playing guitar, spinning and not falling on the floor and still have high quality stage presence is next level.
The drummer, Connor Allen was definitely showing off, throwing the sticks in the air and spinning them around but no one was complaining in fact we were absolutely eating it up.
Finally. Taylor.
I’m going to go on a little rant here (it’s not about Taylor. Taylor you’re doing amazing sweetie.) but do you guys remember when everyone was praising Chappell Roan for jumping and dancing on stage while singing? Pop punk and rock girlies and artists have BEEN doing this for ages. (I’m a Chappell Stan till I die. Do not misinterpret this.)
Taylor Acorn is the opposite of an exception - and yes I can word it like that if I want to because this is my blog and what are you going to do about it? Take that creative writing degree.
Opening with album title song “Poster child”, following it up with two fan favourites “People Pleaser” and “I Think I’m In Love” I nearly didn’t get these epic photos because I was too busy being absolutely bewildered in the best way. No video does this live performance justice.
When I was in year 8 science we did this activity where we had to pretend to be atoms going through the evaporation project. You know what, at least they didn’t just make us read from the textbook.
Anyway, the teacher basically made us all stand stood still, separately because obviously, we’re all representing a solid. Literally what else would we be? Then she prompted us to start walking around the room and slowly getting faster, stating that she was “heating us up.” Eventually we were all chaotically running about the classroom like headless chickens. Yes, I did go to a real school.
I’m not telling you this because I want to teach you about the evaporation process. Essentially. This is kind of how good live music can feel. People might be stuck still or isolated in daily life but once you’ve got that one thing driving you, suddenly you’re full of energy, bouncing (or headbanging) off other atoms, connecting with them maybe for the first time in a while. It’s chaotic and fast but it’s a rush you wouldn’t give up for the world.
Taylor Acorn and her band managed to create this environment. It reminded me of back in my day - a long long time ago (I’m 24) when concerts were the best thing ever. We got to see bands like fall out boy and paramore in their prime. They wouldn’t usually be in arenas they’d be in a mid sized venue filled with like minded people who just loved the music and wanted to jump and dance. There wasn’t as many phones and people weren’t as embarrassed of being seen- enjoying life!
Thank you to both wilt and Taylor Acorn and band for bringing people back to these days with your fantastic energy, talent and music.